Boss clears the air over Shrewsbury incinerator fears

The state-of-the-art and often controversial Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) at Battlefield will start working in the next few weeks.

In 2007, Veolia won the 27-year contract worth £850 million from the Shropshire Waste Partnership, which is now part of Shropshire Council. And after a long battle the incinerator is almost ready.

Steve Mitchell, general manager at Veolia Shropshire, spoke about what the facility means to Shropshire, what people will see and how it will affect them.

He said: "Veolia has a contract to manage all of the waste within the county, which includes collection from the doorstep through to end destination of whatever that waste is. And the Battlefield ERF is the final piece in the jigsaw of that management structure. The residual waste will come here, rather than it going to landfill. It will get incinerated in the plant here and generate energy.

"This is seen as a key way in which we can reduce landfill, which is the worst possible option for waste and produces large amounts of greenhouse gases which damage the environment."

He said the incinerator will burn up to 90,000 tonnes of waste taken from local homes and generate enough electricity to power 10,000 homes a year.

There has been plenty of opposition to the plant, with concerns ranging from its large appearance to possible health issues from gas released.

Mr Mitchell insists there was no need to worry about health and said that the size of the building could not be helped.

"I have worked for Veolia for a number of years and have been involved in various projects which use the same form of technology," he said. "Personally I am completely at ease with what we do.

"I think most people accept the fact that most of these facilities have a part to play in how we manage our waste in this country – but of course most people what not want to have it near them. But the reality is these plants have to go somewhere.

"But I understand people's concerns, one is that that living close to one of these plants will be bad for health.

"I have lived and worked around these plants for the last 20 years and if I thought they were bad for my health I wouldn't.

"We are policed by the Environment Agency and it is very tightly regulated. What we emit to atmosphere after is very tightly controlled. There's a huge amount of gas processing technology in that plant that is there to ensure it isn't polluting and isn't dangerous to health."

There have also been concerns about where the waste will come from to be processed in Shrewsbury. The plant is mainly for Shropshire Council, but Mr Mitchell said waste could come from elsewhere.

"As the economy grows waste arising will grow as well. As the economy contracts, the waste arising falls away," he said. "This plant is going to be here for 25 years absolute minimum and must be able to cope with any form of fluctuation in waste.

"The majority will be from Shropshire but there may be other bits from other authorities or other areas but it won't be drawn in from very far afield because there are other facilities like this in the West Midlands."

"The difference here is we have spent a huge amount of money, multi-millions, on the gas clean-up system which sits on the back of that plant and nothing goes to atmosphere until it has been treated through that gas abatement system.

"So we will take out all the particular, we will add in carb and lime which will react with the gases produced in the combustion process and will capture residue in that process so we are well within the Environment Agency's strict guidelines as to what we can put up the chimney."

While testing is due to start shortly there is no firm timescale for the plant to be open and fully operational, but there is a rough timescale of summer 2015.